Sweden's referendum about the Euro.

[Stratos]

I just came back from the voting station where I and the other Swedes voted wether we want to adopt the Euro or not. It has been a very heated debate about this in Sweden recently but it has been overshadowed in the recent days by the death of Anna Lindh. It has long been a fairly even battle between the two sides but leaning slightly to a 'No' to the Euro. The 'Yes' side has gained ground the past few weeks though so it will be interresting to see the outcome.

The voting stations closes at 8 pm local time and the results will be presented sometime tonight. I'll come with an update as soon as I know the final results (if I don't fall asleep before then ).

Edit: Let's not forget that Estonia has a referendum too today but that one is whether to join the European Union or not. The 'Yes' side is expected to win with about 70% of the votes.

[ 09-14-2003, 07:58 AM: Message edited by: Stratos ]

[Dreamer128]

If I had to place a bet on it, I would say that the Swedish are most likely to vote 'No'.

[Stratos]

Originally posted by Dreamer128: If I had to place a bet on it, I would say that the Swedish are most likely to vote 'No'.

The 'No' probably side still have an edge but some recent polls shows that the 'Yes' side would win so it's not decided yet. There's still a large portion of the Swedes that are undecided, something like 14% and that group have grown.

[ 09-14-2003, 08:03 AM: Message edited by: Stratos ]

[B_part]

Be prepared for unusually high inflation rates if Euro wins. Conversion between different currencies cannot be exact, and prices will be rounded up in most cases. It happened in most Euro countries, I guess it would happen also in Sweden. Wish you luck [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Skunk]

Originally posted by B_part: Be prepared for unusually high inflation rates if Euro wins. Conversion between different currencies cannot be exact, and prices will be rounded up in most cases. It happened in most Euro countries, I guess it would happen also in Sweden. Wish you luck [img]smile.gif[/img]

However, it's not all bad as salaries (for most euro states) increased to off-set the changes in prices...

[Stratos]

***Update***

Well almost all votes are counted now and it's quite obvious that the 'No' side won. The numbers I have in front of me are: Yes 41.8% and No 56.1%. These numbers are not expected to change much during the counting of the remaining votes. The participation in the polling was 81.2% which has to be considered fairly good.

Seems that Sweden has joined Denmark and Great Britain standing outside the single currency.

[johnny]

You can congratulate your fellow countrymen, because the Euro SUCKS ASS. Ever since we have our new currency things are much more expensive, some are just outrageous, like clothing.

I wonder why the hell they had to shove the Euro down our throats. To make us all bankrupt or something ?

[Skunk]

Originally posted by johnny: You can congratulate your fellow countrymen, because the Euro SUCKS ASS. Ever since we have our new currency things are much more expensive, some are just outrageous, like clothing. I wonder why the hell they had to shove the Euro down our throats. To make us all bankrupt or something ?

Yes, but most salaries in most sectors increased in line with inflation or better - very few jobs had pay rises that did not at least off-set the price rises...

Furthermore, prices on the internet dropped dramatically (esp. electrical goods, music, software, and other goodies). Cafe prices rose and so did food - but the rise in income more than covered that.

Don't know about clothes can't say that I've bought any in the Netherlands - ever. Generally do my shopping in London or Paris and I don't think that there was any appreciable rise in prices in the latter city...

[johnny]

Well, my salary didn't go up one bit. And you'll notice it when you're going grocery shopping, everything went up, and not just a little like they do every year. You also notice it when you go for a haircut, the Euro simply replaced the Guilder in that branch, which makes a haircut almost twice as expensive.

A decent pair of jeans is up to 100 or even 125 Euro now, where it used to be 125 guilders. So there the price almost doubled as well. And the list goes on and on and on. Basically the Euro screwed us all. A lot of people are complaining about it. Why the hell did we never get to vote for this, like the Danes and the Swedes ?

[Skunk]

This is a great loss for Sweden. Many companies have chosen to remain in Sweden pending the outcome of the vote and threatened to leave if the vote was a 'NO'. Even Ericsson (perhaps Sweden's most famous brand) had already threatened to scale back manufacturing operations in Sweden in favour of euro-zone countries or other countries with a more stable currency.

That said, unemployment in Sweden is rising, so reduced wages as a result of this may be enough to off-set the losses from exchange rates that some companies are experiencing; but only in the short term.

Being faced with unemployment or reduced wages is no cause for celebration - but that said, their loss is potentially our gain, as Ericsson demonstrates, so I don't see this as a bad result for the existing euro-zone members.

[ 09-15-2003, 04:46 AM: Message edited by: Skunk ]